President Obama stops in Phoenix today to address the annual convention for Veterans of Foreign Wars. Washington Examiner reporter Julie Mason gives us a preview of what they can expect to hear from the president. The Takeaway also speaks with Kristen Rouse, 1st Lieutenant in the Army National Guard and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, along with Bruce Smith, who served in Vietnam as a Naval Petty Officer.
"I think his most important job is to address that current policy in Afghanistan, because I think veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as past veterans really need to know: what are we doing and why are service members being asked to put their lives at stake, and why are their families being asked to sacrifice what they are for this Afghanistan policy. It's an important selling point for him to very clearly articulate that, also to say the name of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, who is still being held prisoner by the Taliban, and he needs to say that name and and let people know, let America know, that that soldier is not forgotten."
—Kristen Rouse, 1st Lieutenant in the Army National Guard and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, on what she thinks Obama needs to say in his address to the VFW this afternoon
The Takeaway is a national morning news program produced in partnership with The New York Times, the BBC World Service, WNYC, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston. More »
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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